Stars extend winning streak to five with 7-2 rout of Avalanche

The Dallas Stars continue to roll, and they are now doing it both at home and on the road. The Stars won their fifth straight game overall -- and their third straight on the road -- blowing out the Colorado Avalanche, 7-2, at Pepsi Center on Sunday night.

WATCH: [All Stars vs. Avalanche highlights]
The five-game winning streak is the longest of the season for the Stars, who improved to 7-1-0 over their last eight games and are now 16-10-1 on the season. The Stars, who were coming off a home-and-home series sweep of Chicago, kept the momentum going in Denver on Sunday.
"It's huge for our team," said defenseman Greg Pateryn. "We've done some good things and built off what we need to this past week and on the road. It was really important for us to close this week out."
"We're playing the right way," said Stars coach Ken Hitchcock. "There's no other way to describe it. We're playing the game the right way. We're not chasing the game up and down the ice. We're not gambling on 50-50 situations. We're playing smart. If you play the game the right way, and you have enough skill, then you give yourself a chance to win games. That's what we're doing."
The Stars got off to a good start Sunday, taking a 2-0 lead into the first intermission, maintaining a two-goal lead after 40 minutes and then putting the game away with three unanswered goals in the third.
Tyler Seguin and Brett Ritchie each scored two goals for the Stars. Jason Spezza, Pateryn, and Devin Shore scored as well. Kari Lehtonen, who was making his first start since Nov. 18, stopped 25 of 27 shots for Dallas.
"I think Lehtonen stood tall," Hitchcock said.

Colorado (12-11-2) fell to 1-3-0 through the first four games of its current five-game homestand.
"We're flat. I mean, we come out and the other teams are outskating us, they are out-forechecking us," said Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson."It's frustrating because we have been good at home and a team that's really been tough to play against lately, and the last couple of games haven't been that way. It's got to change, and we'll rectify it and make sure it does."
The Stars led 2-0 after 20 minutes, scoring two goals late in the first period, both the off the stick of Seguin. The Stars center stole the puck at the Dallas blue line and scored off a backhand shot on a breakaway at the 14:44 mark to give the Stars a 1-0 lead. Seguin was then tackled by linemate Alexander Radulov as part of the goal celebration.
"I saw him coming and then braced myself," Seguin said.
Seguin struck again with 50 seconds left in the first to extend the lead to two goals. John Klingberg put a shot on net from the right point that was tipped by Radulov and then Seguin before it ended up in the Colorado net.
The Avalanche cut into the lead early in the second period. After a Dallas turnover, Mikko Rantanen scored on an odd-man rush 39 seconds into the period to slice the Dallas lead to 2-1.
But the Stars scored two goals in 64 seconds later in the period to push their lead to 4-1. Shore made a nice rush into the Colorado zone, and his shot on goal was tipped into the net by Spezza to put Dallas up 3-1 at the 6:48 mark.

Pateryn made it a 4-1 game at 7:52 of the second, scoring off a blast from the right point for his first goal of the season and first as a Dallas Star.
"It's always fun to score goals," Pateryn said. "And when we don't do it often, it's even more special. [Radulov] was able to draw everyone down to the net and the puck popped out and I know I have a good shot, so I just let her rip."
The Pateryn goal ended the night for Avalanche goaltender Jonathan Bernier, who was replaced by Semyon Varlamov.
The Stars thought they had a 5-1 lead a little less than three minutes later when a Radek Faksa shot went in off Tyler Pitlick during a scramble at the Colorado net, but the Avalanche challenged for goaltender interference. Officials ruled that Pitlick interfered with Varlamov, negating the goal and keeping it a 4-1 game.
The Avalanche cut the lead to 4-2 five minutes later when Blake Comeau scored off the rebound of a Tyson Barrie shot at 12:45 of the second.
Colorado had a great chance to cut the lead to one early in the third period, but Lehtonen made a big save on a Sven Andrighetto chance on the power play to keep it a 4-2 game. Just 36 seconds later, Curtis McKenzie set up Ritchie, who scored from close range to make it 5-2 at the 4:02 mark.
Shore scored a shorthanded empty-net goal to push the lead to 6-2 with 2:36 remaining. And then 46 seconds later Faksa set up Ritchie on the rush to put the Stars up 7-2.

Notes

What's Next

The Stars return home to play Nashville on Tuesday at American Airlines Center. This is the second of four meetings between the two teams. The Predators won the first meeting, 4-1, in Nashville on Oct. 12.

Stars Lineup

Jamie Benn - Tyler Seguin - Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark - Jason Spezza - Devin Shore
Remi Elie - Radek Faksa - Tyler Pitlick
Curtis McKenzie - Gemel Smith - Brett Ritchie
Esa Lindell - John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis - Greg Pateryn
Stephen Johns - Julius Honka
Kari Lehtonen
Ben Bishop
Scratched:Jamie Oleksiak, Jason Dickinson
Injured:Antoine Roussel (illness), Martin Hanzal (hamstring), Marc Methot (knee)

This story was not subject to approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club. Mark Stepneski is an independent writer whose posts on DallasStars.com reflect his own opinions and do not represent official statements from the Dallas Stars. You can follow Mark on Twitter at @StarsInsideEdge.